Tag Archive: 3D

Audiences responded very well the adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax and showed up in droves. The film raked in over $70 million in the first three days of release. The film has been bashed a little for being a mess but I guess none of that matters. I’m sure the 3D charge helped push the finally tally up a bit. Still this opening is the best a Dr. Seuss movie has done. The team behind films like HOP and Despicable Me made this and I guess are slated to make a lot more films as they seem to just only hit home runs. At this pace The Lorax could be on of the biggest films of 2012.

Sadly landing in the second spot was the teen party film Project X. The R-rated “found footage” flick partied up about $20 million over the weekend. Sad to see people responding to this film like this when good comedies like Wanderlust are out and getting ignored. The film was rather cheap so it looks like this film will be a solid hit.

Fighting strong was the Navy Seals movie Act of Valor, the #1 movie last week feel to the third but brought in a solid $13.7 million. It has gathered almost $50 million in total which is pretty solid, not a block buster but pretty good for an R-rate action film. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island just keeps kicking it and added another $6 million, bringing its total to a little over $85 which is pretty impressive.

The Vow and Safe House are also still sticking around. Both films have broken the $100 million mark and are solid hits. A total bright spot for the studios that two none franchise films already breaking that mark is a good sign. With other films also doing really well 2012 looks like it could be a real good year for movies.

It should be noted that The Artist got a huge bump from its Oscar wins. It broke into the top ten even after being out for months. Making almost $4 million. Still that film should be getting seen by many more people. Wanderlust and Gone amazingly have already dropped out of the top ten.

Next week John Carter comes out… As a nerd I suggest everyone go see this film. I will say this because I’m biased. I hope it does well. I want sequels because that franchise is amazing.

Did you miss the first Ghost Rider? No problem this movie through animation shows us everything about how Johnny Blaze(Nic Cage) made a deal with the devil to save his father. The deal is that he becomes a demon that would stalk the Earth punishing lost demons and other evil. Bad call by the devil, once he tries to bring the anti-Christ into our world the only thing standing in his way is the Ghost Rider. This film is directed by Neveldine/Taylor who made the Crank films… Well you can tell because this movie is frankly insane.

The first film is a total failure. Nic Cage as Johnny Blaze barely worked, he was too silly. Eating jelly beans from a martini glass. Every time Ghost Rider appears the action is simple and goes by in a flash. The villain was weak… Everything was just weak. The response in this film is everything is totally over the top. Nic Cage’s Blaze is no longer silly, he’s insane, there are multiple moments where his character just straight looses it, we’re suppose to believe he’s battling the demon inside himself, but it just comes off like he’s tripping on acid. Still we get some very classic Cage moments and frankly I’d love to see him play Blaze again.

The plot is very basic. A young boy is being hunted by a man named Roarke(Ciaran Hinds) who is simply the devil in human form. He has a league of armed ass holes chasing after him. Now Johnny Blaze has been traveling the world trying to keep the demon inside of him locked down. That is until a French man named Moreau(Idris Elba) who makes a deal with him. If Blaze helps save the boy, he’ll help him get rid of the Ghost Rider. The problem is the movie never slows down. Once Blaze/Ghost Rider save the boy they only have about three minutes of screen time together, yet the boy and Blaze somehow make a connection. Whatever.

The film just never takes any time with anything. Blaze shows up at a temple and randomly walks into a room… We get a bunch of CGI nonsense thrown at us and then POOF! Blaze is cured of his curse… Right. I get having fun and making a crazy action movie. But you need a balance if you really want to make a fun action movie that sticks. Here though the balance is off, the film is crazy, fun in places but it never lets anything settle, so you find yourself just shrugging as it ends.

Now the things they do get right is the Ghost Rider. The first film failed in making the Ghost Rider cool at all. They tried to make him family friendly, he’s not. Here the Rider just murders people and seems to enjoy it. The action is just better and they had fun with it. Especially the last 10-15 minutes is just fun. The action and chaos really works. The film, unlike the first actually has villains which was nice to see. It also should be noted that the 3D works. Early on the camera is a little too close to some of the actors so the 3D is a little shaky, but for the action scenes it really works. So it’s got that at least.

In the end this film is just a mess, it’s crazy, fun in a guilty pleasure way but over all just not a good movie. If it took a second to let things settle it would be different, but one second we have Cage going off the wall insane, to the next second he’s a father figure. It just never really works. The Ghost Rider scenes work great. Too bad he only shows up really like three times during the entire movie.

Love is in the air with Valentine’s Day approaching and audiences responded, The Vow crushed this weekend with over $40 million in the three day period. I was not really impressed with the trailers for this film, but it wasn’t exactly aimed for me. The bigger surprise is how many people went to the theaters this weekend. Denzel was a draw as Safe House racked in around $39 million. That’s huge. Both movies I feel like are surprise hits, with big opening weekends and smaller budgets the studio’s must be very excited. Especially The Vow since I believe on Tuesday(Valentine’s Day) the film should rake in some more cash.

Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace 3D made a solid $23 million at the box office. No matter what you think of these films you can’t really deny the magic of seeing them on the big screen. A sequel that doesn’t really seem like a sequel, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island also did very well this weekend as I’m sure families decided to treat themselves to a 3D eye gasm. The film landed in third with over $27 million. I guess brining in the The Rock was a pretty good idea. Will see how great the legs are for that film and maybe will get Journey 3: The Bumblebee Cover… Yeah I made that up but it sounds good.

Last weeks top films dropped like rocks, Chronicle added another $12 million and easily has made more than its production cost, so it’s a hit, sort of. The Woman in Black added around $10 million to its pocket as well. At a total of $35 million and rising I’d say this film is a big surprise hit. Good for Harry Potter.

The rest of the list is pretty basic, The Grey is still making some cash. Underworld: Awakening is sticking around in the 10th spot. The Descendants is still kicking up some cash and has raised its over all total to a little over $70 million. Glad to see people like to go out and see good movies. Here is the list…

Every once and a while there comes a movie so stunning in its visuals that it makes you understand why movie theaters exist. The film is basic in plot, frankly we’ve seen stories like this before. Yet the look of the film, the feel, it’s so stunning that you can’t help but feel like you’ve seen a piece of art once you’ve left the theater. The movie follows Hugo(Asa Butterfield) a young orphan living in a train station in Paris. His father(Jude Law) was a brilliant creator that died in a museum fire. Hugo using what he learned from his father helps the clocks in the station run, while he tries to build a small mechanical person his father left behind. From there he gains relationships that leads to a beautiful love letter to early films from the 1900’s like Un Voyage A La Lune.

This film is a family friendly film, though it’s pacing is very adult. The pacing is an issue frankly is half way through the film slows down epically. This is a minor issue though in a very beautiful film. Many are most likely used to Martin Scorsese making violent crime drama’s. This film is far from those. Every scene seems perfect, it’s hard to describe. The film has many minor characters in it and their plot lines are basic and pointless but they are so small it’s hard to be annoyed by this.

The 3D is very special here, my stance on the technology is nothing more than a shrug. Most of the studios using don’t seem to understand it. When on saw Avatar on the big screen it blew me away, it was magical. Since then it’s been let down after badly made let down. Here the 3D works with the world Scorsese created, it’s frankly worth the extra charge at the box office.

The other stand out to this film are the child actors in it, Asa Butterfield and Chloe Moretz are stunning. Usually younger actors hold a film down or slow scenes down. Here they make the movie come to life. Now sure Jude Law is good in the small scenes he’s in. Ben Kingsley is impressive here as well but these younger actors really helped me through the film. The plot is frankly basic, there are no real big moments in the movie either. Their performances helped through all of that. They didn’t need to story to cover up for them. The acting stands alone which is very impressive.

If you love movies this is really a must see. The 3D is magical. The film itself is a very family friendly film. Be aware that besides a couple cute scenes with dogs the movie doesn’t dumb things down. No fart jokes or nonsense, the movie is very classy but it’s still totally worth taking your kids. Think of it this way, a decade from now they’ll look back at this movie and say “Why don’t they make movies like that anymore?”.

Okay so it’s another remake, and an obvious attempt to make a tent pole franchise. Still this film feels like the Will Smith film Wild Wild West, a concept filled with action and campyness. So off balance that not even actors trying their best can save this sinking ship… Or crashing flying ship may be a more appropriate here. The plot is pretty much what we’ve seen before in Three Musketeer films, D’Artagnan(Logan Lerman) journeys to Paris, trying to prove himself to his father by becoming a musketeer. Yet he’s angry and filled with angst, for no reason at all, once he shows up to the city he basically starts fight with everyone he can find. Which includes famous Musketeers, Athos, Aramis and Porthos. Who recently have been betrayed by Milady(Milla Jovovich) working along with the power hungry Cardinal(Christophe Waltz) and the Duke of Buckingham(Orlando Bloom) who plots a war between France and Britain using giant flying ships.

This films major flaw is that literally no character gets any depth. The film is called Three Musketeers but yet the three of them barely get any screen time. The film has so many villains and takes so long to extend it’s pointless plot that we get no time with the leads. What really pisses me off about this is that the actors are good here. I liked the Musketeers and I wished they you know were seen on screen. It’s obvious this was a vehicle designed for Lerman, who is fine here but it just seems odd. The film is just obviously obsessed with the flying ships, which in the end, have nothing to do really with the plot. So much money was thrown at the screen but nothing was spent on the script. Lerman’s character has a major issue with a villain… What might it be? Did he kill his father? Kidnap a loved one(That does happen later in the film)? No, he insults D’Artagnan’s horse… I mean this movie just did not seem to understand how to build on anything. Things just happen. Most of the fight scenes at the beginning have no point.

The plot is not hard to screw up, yet they easily do it here. The Musketeers are an after thought. It should have been called: “D’Artagnan and the flying ships”. The one thing I have to compliment the movie on is the fight scenes. The sword fighting is really fun here. No choppy camera work, no shaky cam, the slow-mo in places is silly but actually helps pace some of the fights. Also the actors all really try. Jovovich and Bloom are really fun to watch. They both obviously had a lot of fun playing villains and they don’t hold back. Waltz basically walked his way through to a pay check since his Cardinal doesn’t do much besides sit behind tables and give orders. Still it was hard not to root for the actors as this disaster.

The film is a mess and an obvious attempt to dumb down the Three Musketeers. Too much “comedy” elements that fall flat. Too many times the dialogue is just too modern. Even though the limited amount of sword fights we get are well filmed and planned out, there simply are not enough of them. Besides one large battle the Musketeers mainly blow things up and shoot people, it’s dumb. They also really put all their eggs in one basket that really gives a middle finger to the audience, the film doesn’t wrap anything up. The final battle is over diamonds and two air ships battling. The massive battle is set up and then… Credits. I hate when movies assume a sequel is coming. It’s probably not, so this film simply hates its own audience. It’s a shame because the actors are great and the fights were fun, but everything else is just so bad it’s hard to watch in the end. I did not see this film in 3D… I’m happy about that decision because it doesn’t look like it would have been worth it.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre was one of the first big time horror remakes. The movie was gritty and frankly brutal, it also lead the way for dozens of horror remakes, most of them were horrible. Horror films are kind of stuck in this theme of just remakes and sequels of remakes. With SAW 3D making some money over the weekend, but with that franchise coming to an end someone has to take over the Halloween slot. So Leatherface is standing up to take the job. A 3D sequel to the remake is on the way, hopefully they can add to the story instead of just having endless sequels. Whatever your stance is on Paranormal Activity 2, you have to enjoy the fact that they tried to add to the story while using the scares that made the first one so popular. I don’t exactly know where I stand on this, 3D is being over used and not being done the right way. Still to date Avatar is the only movie in my opinion that has. I’m also not a huge fan of the horror remake trend. So will see where this leads.

It seems Cameron has like five movies he plans to make at once. A couple months ago the rumor spread Cameron was going to make a 3D documentary picture about the Amazon. Now this comes out that he now has a Cleopatra film in the tube with Angelina Jolie attached. The movie would focus on the Romans and their involvement in Egypt and a more realistic portrayal of Cleopatra. Now Cameron’s involvement hasn’t been officially confirmed just rumored but the project has very much been green lit. The film itself would try and restore the epic story lines we’re used to seeing from Hollywood. Years ago studios attacked audiences with sand and sandal epics with some doing well and other bombing. In a short period we have: Troy, Alexander and Kingdom of Heaven in a short period of time. All films had problems but were solid in many other places, so I’m glad that this genre might be making a come back. I just don’t believe that 3D is necessary in that return but whatever.

Warner Brothers last week made a huge announcement claiming that Harry Potter: The Deathly Hollows will not be in 3D. They claim they just could not convert it in time. This move proves to me that Warner Brothers is just one of the better studios in Hollywood. 3D conversion sucks, it is that simple. Every movie that has been converted looks horrible. So good move by them to just shut it down. Most HP fans I know were very much against the film being in 3D and were going to go out of their way to see it in 2D theaters. So in the end WB won’t make the couple extra dollars people would have forked over for the 3D glasses but they will keep the fans respect. I think more people will check it out by doing this. Also if they stuck with the conversion people might have come out of the movie hating it for the simple fact that the 3D was horrible. So good move Warner Brothers you have won my respect… Not like they cared about my respect but they still won it!

So it seems that Lucas thinks making truck loads of money is awesome. The plan is to release all six movies in 3D by 2012. Is this a good idea? Hell yes it is, nerds online will for sure claim they won’t see these movies in 3D but we all know they will. You know Lucas will make sure the 3D will be amazing! There is a piece of me that wishes George would focus more on getting better Star Wars properties out there. The Clone Wars cartoon show is alright but nothing very special. I’m hoping the live action show will be super awesome but who knows. Still watching the six movies in 3D could be a lot of fun especially the original trilogy.